05-06-2013, 04:29 AM
I've got a little story that is somewhat related to this. On Black Friday 2003, I purchased a 160GB Western Digital hard drive from Fry's that had two rebates, one for $70, one for $30. I filed everything on time, but only received the $70 check.
I called, FAXed copies, wrote letters, etc, but they could never find that $30 rebate. I finally gave up. Then seven years later, prompted by a thread on this forum, I happened to search California's unclaimed property database and found that there was $30 from Western Digital in my name, address, but with a zip code that had one digit wrong.
So, they had sent a check in 2003 but it never got delivered to me. I filed the unclaimed property claim in Nov 2010, and in Feb 2011, I got that $30 rebate, about 86 months after initially mailing it.
This taught me one thing. That assumption that they make checks look like junk mail so that you throw them away may be incorrect, and it seems that once they write that check to you, it's you money and they have to turn it over to the state in your name if they can't get it to you.
So, check you state's unclaimed property database.
I called, FAXed copies, wrote letters, etc, but they could never find that $30 rebate. I finally gave up. Then seven years later, prompted by a thread on this forum, I happened to search California's unclaimed property database and found that there was $30 from Western Digital in my name, address, but with a zip code that had one digit wrong.
So, they had sent a check in 2003 but it never got delivered to me. I filed the unclaimed property claim in Nov 2010, and in Feb 2011, I got that $30 rebate, about 86 months after initially mailing it.
This taught me one thing. That assumption that they make checks look like junk mail so that you throw them away may be incorrect, and it seems that once they write that check to you, it's you money and they have to turn it over to the state in your name if they can't get it to you.
So, check you state's unclaimed property database.